Sir Ian Botham has revealed the trauma his family went through during his father’s battle with dementia - and has begged ‘not to be judged’ by people ‘who haven’t been through it’ for his decision to stop visiting once the disease got worse.

The former England all-rounder’s father, Les, began suffering from rapidly-debilitating Alzheimer’s disease from the early 2000s.

Les’ condition swiftly worsened and, before his death in December 2005 at the age of 82, Botham could no longer face the pain of seeing his father struggle to recognise his loved ones when they visited.

Sir Ian Botham has opened up about the heartbreak his family went through with his father's dementia battle

The former England all-rounder's father, Les, began suffering from the dreaded disease in the early 2000s

Botham and his mother, Marie – who died in April 2012 at the age of 85 – had taken Les to a specialist home in order to provide him with 24-hour care, but the visits became more painful than rewarding and so the former Somerset, Durham and Worcestershire star made the decision to stop seeing his father.

‘I didn’t want to see my dad like this – all that I was looking at was a cavity of what was my father,’ Botham told BBC’s Inside Out special on Alzheimer’s in the first interview he has given on the subject on television.

‘And I said “mum, you’ve got to stop going” but she said “no I can’t”. I said: “Mum you come back and it’s tearing you apart. You sit there, you’re in tears – he doesn’t know who you are anymore. He doesn’t recognise us.” We’d come in and he’d look up. He’d have someone on his arm and he’d say: “Are you staying here?”

‘He had no idea who I was or who my mum was. So I said: “Mum, I am making a decision now. I have got so many great memories of my father – I am not going anymore and I really wish you wouldn’t because it’s not doing you any good. I’m not going because it’s destroying everything I loved about my father. I don’t want to have to see him like this in this vegetable state.” And I just refused to go.

‘The way to deal with it for me was not to see him. Everyone’s different, and please I beg everyone please don’t judge unless you’ve been there because it is horrendous. To see someone that you have so much time for, who you spent so much time with, so much quality time with, who drove me around as kid and what have you – I don’t want to see that person in that state.’

Botham’s father had been one of the biggest influences on his sporting career and also his life, but England’s leading Test wicket-taker simply could not see someone he loved rapidly disappear mentally anymore.

Botham says his father was one of the biggest influences on his sporting career and throughout his life

The former all-rounder did attend a pre-Ashes Alzheimer’s Australia event earlier this year, however, in order to support a cause which is close to his heart.

And the Sky Sports cricket pundit, who scored 5,200 runs and took 383 wickets in Tests, was knighted for his charitable exploits in 2007. He has raised more than £12million since 1985 by covering more than 10,000 miles on foot and he hopes to continue raising money for various causes – one of them being to help cure dementia.

The 58-year-old continued: ‘I think it was Oscar Wilde who wrote: “We start life as a child and we end life as a child.” That’s exactly where Les was going – he was going the full cycle.

‘So we got him into a home and my mother would go down religiously every day and as this went on, I went with her when I was there. It actually came to it where there was no point in going – he had to be sedated to have a shower, he got violent, he lost all his bodily controls, he was totally dysfunctional.

The Sky Sports cricket pundit says it was heartbreaking to see his father develop into a 'vegetable state'

‘He was fit, healthy, bright, clever, a sportsman, a father, a grandfather. He would have been horrified to see himself and I wasn’t prepared to keep on looking at him like that and seeing this person who didn’t even know who he was.

‘That’s why I didn’t go. Unless you’ve been in that situation, you’ve made those decisions and you’ve seen what can happen – that’s why I’m so pleased they seem to be making advances with the disease and they are coming up with medication.

‘I know you’ll never be able to cure it – we probably will in many, many years’ time – but we can certainly prolong and give that person more quality of life.’

Botham even believes his mother’s death was accelerated by the trauma of watching Les slowly fade away.

‘It had taken its toll on her to such an extent she had a heart attack- it was just too much for her,’ he explained.